Minimally invasive surgical instruments, such as endoscopic and laparoscopic devices, can provide access to surgical sites while minimizing patient trauma. Although the growing capabilities of such therapeutic and diagnostic devices allow physicians to perform an increasing variety of surgeries through traditional minimally invasive routes, further refinements may increase the effectiveness of these surgeries by increasing their ease of use. Currently some robotic systems have been proposed to control such surgical instruments while performing surgery. Such systems, however, fail to provide the tactile feedback to the user and may only enable limited degrees of freedom for the instruments. Accordingly, there is room for further refinement to conventional minimally invasive surgical devices and a need to develop new surgical systems.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention.